Fire-blower/Püsterich

This is a photo of part of Nuremberg city wall, for those who don’t know it.

It’s close to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. They had an exhibition on castles (there’s a parallel one in Berlin) so I went and had a look.

Scarcely had I entered the first room when I was overcome by a sense of information overload. I don’t like these audio guides, as they are so long-winded. Looking at the explanatory texts by the exhibits was also difficult with bifocals. I looked at a couple of castle models and some Playmobil knights’ castles, but I wasn’t in the mood for it.

This Püsterich appealed to me. I sneakily photographed it in the guide (photography not allowed in exhibitions). It is made of ceramics or metal, is filled with water and put in the fireplace, and when it is heated it starts blowing out steam through its mouth. No-one knows why. It may have been to increase the flames, but water is not usually good for that. This is the most famous one and is probably from the 13th century.

In fact it is on the Web too. It is usually at Sondershausen Museum. Google image search reveals a couple of other Püsteriches too. And Sondershausen has a mining museum and an underground marathon (Untertage-Marathon). You have to wear a helmet.

4 thoughts on “Fire-blower/Püsterich

  1. But can I buy the book (not the CD) here in US? It would probably be quite expensive to have it mailed from Europe.

    I tried to search for the title (in German) on Amazon.com and they had nothing.

    • I found it on amazon.com, but they haven’t got it yet. My search words were Kettler dictionary (in Books). They only used the English title.

      Do agree with you about the irrelevance of signing one’s translations!

      • Thanks.

        I signed up for the book and Amazon will send me an e-mail when it becomes available.

        All I have is Romain at this point. Although I can usually find an answer on the Internet, this sounds like a dictionary that I could really use.

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